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Over Hill and Under Hill – by J.R.R. Tolkien
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In Tolkien's The Hobbit, Bilbo the Hobbit joins Gandalf the Wizard and a group of dwarves
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(mythical short people) to find a treasure. In this part, the group gets into a series of dangers.
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Bilbo had never seen or imagined a thunderstorm of this kind. Bilbo, Gandalf and the dwarves were
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sheltering under a hanging rock for the night, and the Hobbit lay beneath a blanket and shook from
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head to toe from the cold. When he looked out in the lightning-flashes, he saw that across the valley
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two stone-giants were out, and were hurling rocks at one another for a game, and picking the stones
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up and making them disappear down into the darkness, where they smashed among the trees, or
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splintered into little bits with a bang. "This place won't do at all!" said one of the dwarves. "If we don't
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get blown away, we will be picked up by a giant and kicked sky-high like a football."
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"Well, if you know of anywhere better, take us there!" said Gandalf, who was feeling profoundly
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grumpy and far from happy about the giants himself. The end of the argument was that the group
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sent out two dwarves to look for a better shelter. [1] "We have found a dry cave," the dwarves said
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after their return, "not far round the next corner; and the ponies and all could get inside." "Have you
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thoroughly explored it?" said Gandalf, who knew that caves up in the mountains were seldom
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unoccupied. "Yes!" they said, though everybody knew they had come back too quick to really check.
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Still, the whole group got up and prepared to move. [2] It was not very far to go, and before long they
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came to a big rock standing out into the path. They stepped behind it and found a low arch in the
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side of the mountain. There was just room to get the ponies through, after they had been unpacked
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and unsaddled. As Bilbo, Gandalf and the dwarves passed under the arch, it was good to hear the
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wind and the rain outside instead of all about them, and to feel safe.
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The wizard was taking no risks and lit up his wand. [3] The cave seemed quite a good size, but not
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too large and mysterious. It had a relatively dry floor and some comfortable nooks. On one side there
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was room for the ponies. [4] Two dwarves wanted to light a fire at the door to dry their clothes, but
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Gandalf would not hear of it. So they had to spread out their wet things and tools on the floor, and
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got dry ones out of their bundles. Later the group talked about what each of them would do with his
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share of the treasure, and forgot about the storm. [5] Somehow, Bilbo could not get to sleep for a
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long while; and when he did sleep, he had very loathsome dreams. He dreamed that a crack in the
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wall at the back of the cave got bigger and bigger, and opened wider and wider. Then he dreamed
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that the floor of the cave was giving way, and he was eventually slipping – beginning to fall down.
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At that he woke up and found that part of his dream was true. A crack had opened at the back of the
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cave, and was already a wide passage. [6] Out jumped goblins, monstrous goblins, ugly-looking
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goblins, lots of goblins. There were six of them for each dwarf, at least, and two even for Bilbo; and
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the Hobbit and the dwarves were grabbed and carried hastily through the opening in the wall. But
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not Gandalf. Bilbo's actions had woken him up, and when the goblins came to grab him, there was a
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terrific flash like lightning in the cave, a smell like gunpowder. The crack closed with a snap, and
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Bilbo and the dwarves were on the wrong side of it! Where was Gandalf? [7] On the other side of the
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wall, the goblins seized Bilbo and the dwarves and hurried them along. It was deep and dark, so that
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only goblins that were used to living in the heart of the mountains could see through. The passages
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there were tangled in all directions, but the goblins knew their way, and the way went down and
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down. [8] The goblins were very rough, and pinched their captives unmercifully, and chuckled in their
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horrible stony voices. Bilbo wished again and again for his nice bright hobbit-hole.
Adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit (Harper Collins 1995).